Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-11
DR.. Talmage breaches an Eloquent Ser
mon to the National Drill
Encampment.
The Weapons of Offsnss and Defense in
Ancient Times Discussed.
Restoration Of TTrra.c-nal Feeling Between
the North and the South.
The Last Great Review of All the Armies
Of the Earth.
SPEAKING TO SOLDIERS.

WASHINGTON, May 29.-Soldicrs OF
the National Drill listened this after
noon to a sermon by the Rev. 1.
Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID. Soldiers from
thirty-one states and territories Were
present, and nineteen governors ana
their stats. Washington is full OF
strangers attendant upon the National
Drill, having for its object improve
ment in military science, which began
May 20 and will close tomorrow. The
music before and after the sermon this
afternoon was conducted by military
bands. DR.. Talmage's texts were
taken from / Chronicles xii: 80:
FIFTY thousand which could keep rank"
And judges Xxx: 10:
''Every one could sling stones at a hair
breadth and not miss"
The preacher said:
Companies of infantry, cavalry, ar
tillery and zouaves, please notice the
first scripture passage applauds the
soldiers Of Zebulun because they were
disciplined troops. They may have
been inefficient at the start and laughed
at by old soldiers because they seemed
SO clumsy in the line, but it was drill,
drill, drill until they could keep step as
one man. Fifty thousand which could
keep rank" The second scripture
passage applauds a regiment of sling
ers in the tribe of Benjamin because
they are dexterous marksmen. When
they first enlisted they may have been
an awkward squad and all their fingers
were thumbs, but they practiced until
when they aimed at IL mark they hit it.
Every one could sling stones at q
hair breadth and not MISS" Both
texts combining to show that if we
must fight we should do it well.
BIBLICAL MILITARY CIENCE
There Is something absorbing in thu
military science of the Bible. In older
times all the men between twenty ant
fifty years of age were enrolled in the
army and then a levy was made for {
special service. There were only three
or four classes exempt: Those who ha(
built 4 house and had not occupied it
those who had planted a garden ant
had not reaped the fruit of it; thos'
who were engaged to be married an,
vet had not led the bride to the altar
those who were yet in the first year o
welded life; those who were SO ner
vous that they could not look upon al
enemy but they fed, and could no
look upon blood but they tainted.
The army was in three divisions
the center End right and left wings
The weapons of defense were helmet
shield, breastplate, buckler. Tn
weapons of otfense were sword, spear
%javelin, arrow, catapult--which wa
merely a bow swung by machinery
shooting arrows at vast distances
great arrows, one arrow as large a
several men could lift; and ballists
which were a sling swung by machin
cry, hurting great rocks and larg
pieces of lead to vast distances. TIL
shields were made of woven willow
work, with three thicknesses of hid
and "a loop inside, through which tn
arm of the warrior might be thrust
and when these soldiers were marchin,
to attack an enemy on the level al
these shields touched each other, max
ing a wall, moving but impenetrable
and then when they attacked a fortress
and tried to capture a battlement, THU
shield was lifted over the head, so as
to resist the falling missiles. The
breastplate was made Of two pieces o,
leather, brass covered, one piece fall
ing over the breast, the other falling
the back. Al the side of the warrio,
the two pieces fastened with buttons
OF clasps.
THE ENGINERY OF DESTRUCTION.
The bows we're so stout and stiff an,
strong that warriors often challenged
each other to bend one. The string
of the bows were made from the sin
ews of oxen. A case like IN inverte,
pyramid was fastened to the back, tina
case containing the arrows, SO tina
when the warrior wanted to use al
arrow he would put his arm over hi
shoulder and pull forth the arrow TO
the fight. The ankle of the foot hat
an iron boot. When q wall was to b.
assaulted a battering ram was brough
IN. A battering ram was a grea
beam swung on chains IN equilibrium
The battering ram would be brough
close to the wall and then a great mum
Der OF men would get hold of thii
beam, push it as far back as the,
could and then let go, and the bean
became a great swinging pendulum o
destruction.
Twenty or forty men would stand il
a movable tower on the back OF ~
elephant, the elephant made drums
with wine, and then headed toward thu
enemy, and with what the heavy fee
and the swinging proboscis and thu